Hero
by paper.creations
Summary: All my life I wanted to follow in my father's footsteps, be the Red Ranger, save earth, find someone to share my life with, pass the Ranger Legacy on, become a hero. -- minor Sky/Z, very subtle Bridge/Syd. It's more character exploration than shipping.


**Hero**

_**Word Count: **_1,837  
_**Series: **_SPD**  
**_**Characters/Pairing: **_Sky/Z, minor Bridge/Syd  
_**Point of View: **_Sky!_  
__**Author's Note: **_ I don't ship Sky and Z at all. _At all_. After watching the whole series, I accept them as one of the few possible canon couples, but that doesn't mean I have to like them! It just fit, sort of.

This wouldn't leave me alone, and I'm a little honoured to finally make my debut to the Power Rangers fandom. Hope y'all enjoy.

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All my life, I've wanted to be like my father, my hero, the first SPD Red Ranger. He dedicated his life to protecting those who couldn't themselves, and in the end, he gave himself in the ultimate sacrifice to save thousands stopping Mirloc.

A villain who I accidentally helped escape, but he's gone for good now, so it doesn't matter.

My father found his place in the world. Red Ranger, defender of earth, husband, father, hero. All my life I wanted to follow in his footsteps, be the Red Ranger, save earth, find someone to share my life with, pass the Ranger Legacy on, become a hero. Preferably doing all that without leaving my family behind in the process, like my own father did. I wanted to do what he did, but live in the end, survive to live in the triumph of conquering evil-doers and making the world safe.

I entered the SPD academy as soon as I could at age 16. It was at the academy where I first learned of my genetic ability to create force fields. Commander Cruger saw my potential, and it was when I was seventeen when I was first promoted, from a Student Cadet to a D Squad Cadet. I wore the gray toned uniform proudly, I worked on my genetic gift, I trained harder, studied longer, than any other Cadet in any other Squad.

When I was eighteen, I was promoted to C Squad, but this time, I wasn't the only one to move up. New recruits Bridge Carson and Sydney Drew joined C Squad, and at first, I was furious. I had worked for two hard years to get to where I was, and they just signed up and got to the same level?

My anger towards them didn't start to dissipate until I realized that they had genetic powers, too, and considering the fact that there was only the three of us in C Squad made me think that the Commander was making a special Squad of super powered Cadets. Maybe super powered Ranger Cadets, in the future. Bridge, my new roommate, much to my disdain, was odd, but his ability to track people through their auras was useful in training simulations. Sydney, the spoiled pop princess, had the most combative power out of the three of us, surprisingly enough. Just by touching another material, she could change her fist into anything she needed. Fist of Iron, of Diamond, of Brick. It went on and on, and I'll admit, I was a little impressed.

It wasn't until I was twenty that we moved up to B Squad. One long year as C Squad had helped us hone our powers until we could fight like a somewhat cohesive unit. It didn't help that Bridge and Syd were the most immature nineteen year olds I had ever seen, but we made it work.

As B Squad, we were the second best, just under the A Squad Rangers. I was desperate to make the last step, to take the Red helmet from Charlie and place it on my own head, but that would be breaking rules. I would know, I read the handbook religiously, as Bridge and Syd say. I had worked so hard to get to that point, and wanted to badly to finally become Red Ranger that I read that handbook cover to cover almost once a day. I would never be dismissed for breaking a rule, never. So I settled for staring at my father's burnt and cracked helmet, which had been knocked off just minutes before he had died in battle. When I was a boy, I had treasured that helmet, but now when I look at it, a very faint part of me thinks it's sick. My father had just died, and they gave me the thing that failed to save him?

Two weeks after my twenty-second birthday, we were given morphers. Bridge and Syd, now twenty one, were Green and Pink respectively. Good for them, I had thought, staring at my morpher in longing. I would finally wear Red like my father; I would finally have something to connect us.

But when I morphed alongside Pink and Green, it wasn't Red that I wore. It was Blue. The colour first worn by Billy Cranston of Angel Grove, and last worn by Ethan James of Reefside. Blue was stereotypically the brainiac colour, the suit given to the computer genius' who save the day in technological disasters.

_Blue?_

Brushing it off as an accident on Kat's part, I fought alongside Syd and Bridge, who were both _thrilled_ at their colours, intent on calling Kat out on her mistake when he got to base. But we got beaten. Badly. Badly enough to break out morph, which was pretty bad.

Just when I was beginning to think I'd follow my father's footsteps a little earlier than planned, the two street thief's Bridge, Syd and I had been trying to apprehend appeared and attacked the robots, using their genetic powers against the 'soccer-ball heads', as Bridge had christened them. The girl, she could create duplicates of herself, and the boy, he could phase through solid objects.

After that whole mess was put behind us, we were able to cuff the thief's and get them behind bars, but before I could corner Kat about my morpher colour, we were sent back out, this time accompanied by the girl thief calling herself Z. She got a morpher - yellow - and that smarted even more than when Bridge and Syd were promoted to C Squad. She was just a thief, and she got a morpher straight away? I'd been training for six years before I got a morpher.

Even with the extra power behind us, we were beaten again, and it was looking bad. Hurting, humiliated, and probably minutes away from involuntarily de-morphing for the second time in one day, help arrived. I'll never forget that day.

Down the alley came the boy thief and Z's posture became more relaxed as she kicked at another soccer-ball head. She called him Jack, and acted as everything would be alright with a civilian in the fray. Then my worst nightmare happened. Jack pulled out a morpher, and in a flash of light, he was in the Red Ranger gear.

_He_ got to be Red? _Street thief_ with _no_ training got it, but loyal Cadet with _six years_ of training for second in command Blue?

The situation was made worse when _Jack_ was the one who put the finishing touches of the lead robot, who used his special _Red Ranger_ weapons, which the others didn't have. Injustice at its finest, as far as I was concerned.

After complaining to Commander Cruger, and getting chewed out for it, I tried to accept the uniform I wore, but it was hard. Jack didn't act like a leader, he abused his power, he left us out to dry and he neglected his responsibilities. We butted heads more than once, and if it wasn't against the rules to attack your teammates, I would have ages ago. Bridge and Syd were trying, but the team was facing serious growing pains, and I denied it as often as possible.

Syd learned to be a little more compassionate to others around her, like RIC, the poor outdated security dog, Z learned to rely on others in tactical situations, Bridge was able to use his oddball logic to capture a bank robber and Jack began to get a better hold on the whole leader thing. What did I get? A traitorous best friend, the blame for Grumm getting all those diamonds, and I singlehandedly broke out the alien that killed my father.

But no matter how much my lot in life sucked, I could see the beginnings of my taking my father's path. I had an arch foe, Lord Grumm, who wanted to take over earth, I was defending my planet alongside some of the best fighters I have ever fought beside, and we were the unofficial new A Squad with the current top Squad kidnapped or killed. I got to fight as the Red Ranger, if just once, and took down Mirloc, the same villain had murdered my father. Jack and I were getting along better, and Blue was beginning to not look too bad.

Scarily enough, I was starting to see someone as someone I wouldn't mind getting to know better on a more personal level. Z had grown from the bitter, sarcastic street rat to a mostly caring, only sometimes sarcastic team player. I felt safe with her fighting next to me, and while Bridge and Syd had given up on trying to get me to lighten up and 'live life', Z was new, and tried with a confusing conviction. She'd take me to the park, the mall, the movies, dinners, even switched up our patrol ties so we were out together. Syd had said something to me about Z being interested in being more than just friends, but I didn't believe it.

It didn't take long for me to change my mind about Z though. The more we spent time together, the more I loved her laugh, or how her eyes lit up when she saw kids playing, or the way her nose wrinkled when we talked about hard SPD cases. She was the free spirit to my rigidness, the compassion to my coldness. She understood how hard I worked to get Red Ranger, and she listened to my buried anguish of seeing Jack in it first.

Of course, nothing could happen. We were Rangers of the same team; it was against the rules to fraternize. I told Z that, and she just nodded, neither pleased nor put out by it.

So when Grumm's robot when down in a fiery blaze, and Commander Cruger walked away from the wreck with his arms around his once lost wife Isinia, the Rangers celebrated. The evil A Squad was defeated, the Troobian Empire was gone, and all that was left was a happy ending.

Somehow, Z had ended up in my arms, and to say I didn't mind would be an understatement.

Of course, Grumm made his last stand looking rather ragged. Commander Cruger cut off his other horn to 'even things out' as he said, and then contained his bitter rival and earth's enemy.

My path was finished. Jack left SPD, and Commander Cruger passed the Red Ranger morpher to me, I had helped save earth beside my team, my friends and my new family, I was a hero, and now, I had someone to stand by my side, not only during battle, but whenever we needed each other. Bridge was promoted to Blue, much to his pleasure - he felt more suited for the brainiac Blue - and he got his own girl. Pink and Blue, Yellow and Red.

I got my happy ending. I followed my father's footsteps with one difference.

I got to live as the hero.

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**Author's Note: **If you kind of liked that, or have any suggestions, please hit that pretty green button! If you liked it so much, you'd like to see more, I'm writing a series of drabble type Bridge/Syd things that I'm quite enjoying, and who knows, maybe I'll do some Sky/Syd ones. I still can't decide which ship I like best -shakes head-

Thanks for reading,

-Maggie


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